First Nations – Part II

On January 2nd I described a tour of various locations and monuments within the National Capital Region that are of particular significance or reference to the First Nations. Since then I have learnt of a few others, including one that eluded me on the first tour – the bronze sculpture of an Anishinabe Scout. Here is the route I followed to visit these additional locations.

First stop, 299 Montreal Road where stands the recently completed Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health, designed by architect Douglas Cardinal who also designed the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau.

Wabano Centre

Second stop is the sculpture of the Anishinabe Scout at the northern tip of Majors Hill Park, tucked behind the small heritage stone building. The first image also shows the statue of Champlain in the distance up on Nepean Point. The sculpture was originally installed at the base of the plinth upon which Champlain stands but was relocated to its present site in 1996 at the request of Ovide Mercredi, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. UPDATE: December 2018 – Just discovered a very good mini-doc on the history of this sculpture.

Anishinabe Scout & ChamplainAnishinabe Scout

My final stop was along the Ottawa River Pathway, just east of Island Park Drive where this recently installed circular arrangement of stones is located. It is titled the Kitchissippi Medecine Wheel and is the work a fellow named Tim. UPDATE – Summer 2015: The installation is no longer there, but it’s still a great spot to visit, overlooking the Ottawa River.

Kitchissippi Medecine Wheel

This description of the piece is mounted to a wooden post just to the right of the wheel.

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Need a bike route?

If you are looking for a bike route to work, or any other destinations around the region, send me two points of reference: a starting point (like a street intersection, or address, or landmark, etc) and the final destination. These can be sent via the ‘Leave a comment’ tag, or by email at OttawaVeloOutaouais@gmail.com . If the start and finish destinations are within an hour’s ride from each other (and most are) I will scout out a bike route and describe it on this blog, or point you to a link if I've aready tried it out.